SCOOP: EgyptPharaoh ruled Event 16-L 7-Card Stud

It was another night of stud in the ongoing PokerStars SCOOP series. This one was simple limit stud, without the hi/lo technicality. Simple 7-card stud for the low, low price of $30 + $3 with a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool.

That enticing offer brought 1,592 players to the tables for the low buy-in portion of Event 16, which boosted the prize pool up to $47,760.00. Who knew there were so many low-limit stud tournament players? The reward for 272 of them was cold hard cash in their PokerStars account, with the ultimate winner set to receive $8,262.49.

In the field today, two Team PokerStars Pros came out to represent, though Marcin "Goral" Horecki was knocked out of the game early in 1220th place. But all-around player Katja Thater went deep in the event, pushing all the way through until her final exit in 89th place.

As Katja made her way through the field, so did several hundred others, as 272 of them made the money thanks to the bubbling of Fortunus in 273rd place. That made way for obi0808 to grab the first bit of cash, taking $39.64 for the 272nd place finish. And on it went, reaching the final two tables in a fairly expedient manner just past the seven-hour mark of the tournament.

When the next bubble approached with ten players remaining, The Grinder left the tables in tenth place, and everyone eyed the short stack of mrBryne to be the next one to make a move, despite his humorous comment that he superglued himself to his chair and was not prepared to leave. Even so, mrBryne did get involved on the next hand. Starting with 88,538 chips and a Q♠ showing, mrBryne raised it up after The1Messiah took care of the bring-in. The only caller of the raise was EgyptPharaoh, and the two took it to fifth street, at which point mrBryne called a bet from EgyptPharaoh that was an all-in commitment from the former. When all of the cards were shown, it was mrBryne with a pair of queens but EgyptPharaoh with aces and queens. mrBryne was stuck with $358.21 for ninth place and the task of ungluing himself from his chair.

As play kicked off among the final eight, the action saw putr1 lose enough chips to become the short stack while Dethlefsen made some efforts to climb out of that position, and pjk713 chipped up and began to close in on EgyptPharaoh's lead. Eventually, though, putr1 tripled up through pjk713 and blake005 to stay alive.

With blinds rising every 15 minutes, it was difficult for the short stacks to maintain. Dethlefsen knew that and finally got involved in a hand with pjk713. When the betting was capped on third street with Dethlefsen showing the 9♠ and pjk713 the K♥, it only took one more card to prompt Dethlefsen to push all-in and pjk713 to call. All of the cards were turned up and dealt to show Dethlefsen with J♣J♠9♠7♣T♠4♦6♣ and pjk with K♣4♣K♥Q♣Q♥2♣5♠ for two pair and the winning hand. Dethlefsen was ousted in eighth place with $477.61 to show for it.

Next at risk was blake005, who went to work in a hand with The1Messiah and EgyptPharaoh. It was on fifth street that blake005 made the all-in push, while The1Messiah decided to fold and EgyptPharaoh called. After all seven cards were dealt, blake005 had only the pair of kings that appeared on third street, but EgyptPharaoh had two pair - queens and jacks - to eliminate blake005 in seventh place with $955.21.

The majority of sonajero's stack went to mikef777 in a sizable hand, leaving sonajero with only 37,188 behind. With that, sonajero went for it and was all-in on third street while pjk713, The1Messiah, and EgyptPharaoh duked it out. In the end, EgyptPharoah showed a strong hand of T♥A♣A♦J♥3♣A♠8♣, and those three aces trumped the king-high hand of pjk713. The1Messiah mucked, as did sonajero, relegating sonajero to sixth place in the tournament, which was worth $1,432.81.

Moments later, recently short-stacked The1Messiah pushed all-in on third street showing 7♦, and putr1 was there with the call. The final cards showed 6♦7♠7♦2♥5♥A♥9♦ for The1Messiah, but that pair of sevens was no good against the J♦J♠Q♣3♠J♣T♥T♣ of putr1, representing a full house. The1Messiah was shown the way out in fifth place with $2,388.01.

The final four began discussing a potential deal, but mikef777 decided not to pause for any numbers at that time. Though mikef777 was at the top of the chip counts at the time, not long after the refusal to deal, EgyptPharaoh and pjk713 began to chip away at him and relegate him to third on the leaderboard.

All the while, putr1 was very short. After the nine-hour break, with only 137,679 in chips, putr1 put those chips at risk on third street as mikef777 came along for the ride. When the cards were turned up, putr1 showed A♦8♥3♣K♥Q♦J♦7♠ for only ace-high, while mikef777 had K♦K♣2♥8♠7♥7♣9♣. The two pair were obviously good to win the pot, and putr1 was given $3,343.21 for the fourth place finish.

Finally, mikef777 was chipped down to little more than 200K and decided to push it on fifth street in a hand that involved both other players. In the end, EgyptPharaoh showed the 7♠4♠9♣J♠5♠Q♥9♥ winning hand, which trumped pjk713's ace-high. mikef777 simply mucked and left quietly in third place with $4,537.21.

With that, the final two players started heads-up play but stopped after only one hand to discuss some deal numbers. After seeing two options, the two decided on the following, with the side note that $500 would be left aside for the winner:

Play resumed with pjk713 taking the lead almost immediately, but EgyptPharaoh came back. But as can happen with so much betting in stud, the lead was exchanged several times during the 45-minute match. But by the last hand, EgyptPharaoh had come to hold the vast majority of the chips, and with stakes at 120,000/240,000 with a 24,000 ante, it was time for pjk713 to move. The last of pjk713's chips went in on the river with a complete hand of 6♦5♥6♠K♣A♦2♣K♠, but those two pair were no good against EgyptPharaoh's T♥J♠8♦9♣Q♥A♠J♣ and the straight. That ended the game with pjk713 in second place with $6,694.92.

EgyptPharaoh became the latest SCOOP stud champion, which came complete with $7,428.68 and a champion's watch. Congratulations!

The SCOOP series more than half over, but there are numerous chances to cash in on the millions yet to be awarded. Check out all of the satellites, available at all buy-in levels to accommodate any bankroll. Visit the SCOOP page for all of the details, the leaderboard page to track your favorite players (or yourself), or the PokerStars.tv site for all of the event highlights.